Tanzania’s President Vowed Opening for Opposition, but Detained Its Leaders

The East African country’s leading opposition party said that its presidential candidate in the last election and its chairman were among dozens detained before a protest called to draw attention to the killing and abduction of government critics.

Tanzania’s main opposition party said on Monday that the police had detained its top leaders and dozens of others ahead of a planned demonstration — the second such crackdown in two months by the government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who came to power promising a political opening.

Among those detained were Tundu Lissu, the 2020 presidential candidate for the opposition party, Chadema, and Freeman Mbowe, the party’s chairman. A police statement said they and a dozen others had been “arrested and questioned” for defying a protest ban. The party said about 50 people had been detained, in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of the country.

Ms. Hassan, who took office in 2021 after her predecessor died, had pledged to break from his autocratic style. The country’s first female leader, Ms. Hassan met with Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington in 2022 and again last year during Ms. Harris’s visit to Tanzania, which was part of efforts to promote democracy and women’s empowerment in Africa.

But the killing earlier this month of an opposition official, Ali Mohamed Kibao, and a series of apparent abductions have kindled fear and consternation in the East African country. Activists say these events have added to questions about the democratic credentials of the nation’s pathbreaking president as local elections approach in November, and a presidential vote looms next year.

“We don’t know exactly what message they want to send us, or if they’re trying to create fear among the people so that, in the upcoming local government election, our members won’t participate because of fear,” said John Mrema, director of communications and foreign affairs for the Chadema party, which organized Monday’s aborted rally.

“I’m feeling afraid because I’m the spokesman of the party, and I have been advised to find a safe place,” Mr. Mrema added.

The police statement said the protest ban was issued because “leaders and members” of Chadema had made statements “indicating potential breaches of peace and creating fear among citizens.”

President Hassan’s office and her party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Previously, the president had condemned the “terrible” killing of Mr. Kibao, who defected from the governing party over a decade ago to join Chadema. Tanzania’s police have said that they are investigating the killing and that they have enlisted help from experts from the office of the director of criminal investigations.

The wife and daughter of the party chairman, Mr. Mbowe, were among those detained Monday, but they were released the same day, according to Mr. Mrema. It was unclear how long the others would be held.

Several opposition leaders and activists said on social media that they had received a text message before the rally falsely claiming it had been postponed.

Hundreds of people, including Mr. Lissu, Mr. Mbowe and other top party officials, were arrested in August as activists gathered for a rally in the city of Mbeya. The party leaders were released two days later after posting bail, according to a statement from the party posted on social media.

“The mass arrests and arbitrary detention of figures from the Chadema party, as well as their supporters and journalists, is a deeply worrying sign,” Sarah Jackson, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, said at the time.

On Monday, the party issued a statement mourning people who it said had been “abducted, tortured, harmed, disappeared or killed in Tanzania.”

Boniface Mwabukusi, president of the Tanganyika Law Society, the bar association of mainland Tanzania, said that dozens of government critics had been arbitrarily detained or abducted this year.

No injuries were reported from Monday’s police action. Maria Sarungi Tsehai, a Tanzanian activist who was in contact with people at the protest, said the police had brought water cannons, helicopters, horses and dogs, “clearly intending to intimidate ordinary citizens from participating in the protests.”

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